WE'VE MOVED!

We are proud to announce our NEW community destination. Engage with resident experts and fellow entrepreneurs, and learn everything you need to start your business. Check out the new home of StartupNation Community at startupnation.mn.co

(Untitled)

exsellexsell subscriber Posts: 1
edited June 2007 in Sales
  Cold calling doesn`t work anymore. Those techniques are old fashioned 20th. Century techniques that went out of date with the industrial age. We are now firmly in the information age since we obtained the internet and email. You should be telling people to stop using these disruptive and intrusive techniques. You cannot get to any decsion makers by cold calling these days. People communicate in much more sophisticated ways. Using information age technology can put your sales message in front of 100`s of decsion makers per day without disruption or intrusion into their very valuable time. Get them to call you instsead of wasting good time and money trying to get in front of people who are not expecting you and as a consequesence, have already raised their barriers and are in conflict with your objectives from word go! You need to update your skills and move into the 21st. Century.
«1

Comments

  • GetAGripGetAGrip subscriber Posts: 14
    I have been very successful cold calling, it is really all about how you speak to them.  Normally it leads to an email to actually get the info. to them, but I always start with a call.
    One of my biggest customers is a very large truck stop chain, I did not even plan on being in that market.  I came across the name of a buyer in a copied email and thought I would give it a shot, called the buyer, she loved the product and order 5000 pcs. the following week.
    Why not try anything to get your product to market.  Cold calling, emailing, mailings, it all works if you reach the right person.
  • bertbert subscriber Posts: 12
    I agree but I am not sure that I have found a good replacement for it yet.  Any real suggestions...
  • exsellexsell subscriber Posts: 1
    I always find that a scattergun approach is very time consuming. I started my sales career 35 years ago and since then have always used whatever methods  available (my whole livelyhood was geared around successful cold calling until about 6 years ago). I am suggesting that the world has changed now and to our advantage as sales and marketing people.
    The best approaches are now much more focussed and targetted. Know your target market, your target customer profile and discover and adopt systems to mechanise contact with them through the use of email autoresponder campaigns and your company website. Give them something upfront that is directly in their interest. Knowledge, tips,news, newsletter, information, your company brochure on .pdf (anything). If you do this on a regular basis you will get much better results and more of the world will know who you are, where you are and what you do.
  • bertbert subscriber Posts: 12
    Is the goal of giving them something up front to get them to call you or to allow your call to get through when following-up?bert2007-6-7 16:33:53
  • exsellexsell subscriber Posts: 1
    Hi Bert,
     
    Could be a way but I find that if you send several messages with useful or valuable information to your targets they may respond , but the job here is profile. This is the first item on the agenda for any new business. If you have an impelling urge to call them the old fashioned way then you might find it isn`t a cold call but a warm one because they will already know who you are. What I try to do is get them to call me. If you want a working example that runs for 14 days on autopilot send me your email and I will return an email to demonstrate this to you realtime.
    Regards
    Robert
  • hourlypdhourlypd subscriber Posts: 0
    This is what I have been tell people for years!Director of Sales and MarketingJ Max Marketing-The personal Touchhttp://www,jmaxmarketing.com
  • marketingpro1marketingpro1 subscriber Posts: 0
    Forget the research, know your market, know their hot buttons and ask a pointed prequalifying question.  Knowing what you can accomplish is more than enough.  Too many salespeople use research as a dodge.  Get a name and call.  Repeat this process at least 5 times a day when you`re established and all day everyday if you`re not.  Stop procrastinating, get on the phone.  Or, you can outsource this:  www.outsourceyoursalesforce.com</A>
     
  • marketingpro1marketingpro1 subscriber Posts: 0
    With all due respect exsell, you`re wrong.  We do it.  We do it well.  We do it for ourselves and for our customers.  Passivity leads to failure, fortune favors bold action. Online media and permission based marketing should be part of a portfolio of marketing that must include professional, consistent, conversational personal contact with new prospects.  www.outsourceyoursalesforce.com</A>marketingpro12007-6-7 22:58:55
  • PEYEPEYE subscriber Posts: 0
    Whatever technique you decide to use remember this...
    1. Stand up when you talk on the phone. (your voice will sound stronger)
    2. Put a smile a your face. (it comes through on the other end)
    3. Don`t take "No" personally. (you end the conversation...not the person on the other end. This will keep you positive for the next call...which you should make IMMEDIATELY!)
     
    Mike Williams
    Private Detective
  • GetAGripGetAGrip subscriber Posts: 14
    I agree with Marketingpro1, get a name and call!!!!!!!!
  • exsellexsell subscriber Posts: 1
    This morning I mailed 250 CEO`s with a valuable newsletter. Before 7am I had 2 opt-in reponses and later today (as yesterday and the day before) I would expect at least another 5 contacts from CEO`s opting-in to get what I sent them. This happens most days and they all visit my website in the process. In the next 14 days every single one of them will get 4 automated follow-up responses about the gift I gave them and they accepted. That is 35 CEO responses a week. How many CEO`s do you get in front of in a week cold calling? Furthermore, I have not lost control or given away my positioning in any future contact because when you cold call you are perceived as needing the prospects` business which weakens you position. You know, if you have the time and the pressure to have to cold call, then you must be desperate for the business from the person you are calling. I am sorry but that is how you are perceived these days and the more senior you are the harder this reflects on you.
    Get them to call you...and they will if you have something they are interested in. Out of the 1700 or so opt-ins I get per year. If I get only 2% as clients I am very happy and very busy (too busy to cold call). All of them though, know who my company is, what we do and where we are, so if I did call them it is not a cold call. Don`t make hard work for yourself.
    I get this type of objection from older sales guys like myself who have been taught all of these techniques before the information age. I have a 35 year career in sales and marketing behind me but I have always wanted to do things the easiest and most effective way I can. I am not so set in my ways that I can`t listen and learn from the changing world and other people`s experiences.
    What I do know now is that sales people and especially sales mangement need to change their old appraoches as the world has already left them behind. Work smarter not harder. We have the tools at our disposal so use them. Don`t be closed off to new ideas and trying something different just because what you know is implanted deep in your brain. After all, everything on this planet is evolving, improving and adapting, So why don`t you give it a go?
     
     
  • eventbrandereventbrander subscriber Posts: 6
    I don`t like cold calling and have struggled with it for some time. What works best for me is getting in front of my target and showing them my personality and passion for what I do.
     
    I find developing a close relationship makes them a client for life and even better in some cases a friend and walking advertisement.
     
    Developing email lists, newsletters, and good content that brings clients to you is great too and does work with good messaging and frequency.
     
    So I lean towards a combination of online marketing and relationship building.
     
    Chris
  • exsellexsell subscriber Posts: 1
    Thanks,
     
    at last...some support. Hey you were up early this morning!
     
    Robert
  • exsellexsell subscriber Posts: 1
    Bert,
     
    Great comments! Selling skills are definetely in play once you are in front of someone in person. If you don`t keep in touch with your customers every 6-8 weeks they think you are ignoring them or worse, that you don`t value them. That is why I get mine (prospects to) to opt-in to my newsletter. When they get that sent on autopliot on a regular basis it reminds them that we are still out there and still care about them. Its personal.
    In the UK we are a small country and you are actually expected to get in your car and meet face to face. When I lived in the USA demographics prevented me from doing that. It is very different for you guys. Every Friday was my phone a friend day and that was when I would keep in touch with my valued clients, even if its just a Hi  how are you and is there anything I can help you with today?
    Cheers
  • CoppermanCopperman subscriber Posts: 2
    Great comments.
    Even for a large land mass like the US, newer communications technology seem to fill in the gap of some face-to-face meetings. The use of autoresponders works well. The next best thing to getting face-to-face with a distant client is to send them a video. If they have connected with you, they can definitely relate to your familiar face and voice. There is clear evidence that you message is retained better (30%) than a text email or voice mail.
    If you have not tried this technology, it is well worth a go. They are now of great quality and cost-effective.
    I`d recommend a company here in the US. (see http://www.firststreaminc.com</A>)
    Copperman (California, USA)
Sign In or Register to comment.